A FanZine for All Royal Lovers, By Royal Lovers. If you have an idea for an article, contact @TheRoyalFanzine on twitter or our editor-in-cheif (check the writer profiles for her contact info)
We'd love to hear from you! :)

Monday, September 12, 2011

The Ultimate Guide and Galleria of Royal Pets

Just like their commoner counterparts-their subjects, people of other lands, etc.-Royals like animals, and keep them as pets. Granted, some of these animals are more unconventional-i.e. many royal families take claim to the Royal Zoo animals…take Great Britian or Monaco for example: In Great Britain, not only does the Sovereign take claim to her private animals such as dogs or horses, but to several exotic animals in the London Zoo. In Monaco, Prince Rainier started a zoo in 1954 that once held two hundred fifty animals that includes many animals including: elephants, an Arabian camel, exotic birds, a black panther, white tiger, hippopotamus, reptiles, primates, lemurs, among others.Marcia Tracy and Ashley Michael explored the four-legged friends of royal families from Belgium, Great Britain, Denmark, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and more!

Laurent with 3 dogs, including Kropka, in 2009: One of them, a Bernese Mountain Dog (in French: Bouvier Bernois) died, it says in the article. In the picture, this one who died is on the Left. He was 7 years old and had cancer. That article tells a strange story: In the summer of 2009, the Bernese Mountain Dog died from cancer and Laurent was so upset he had the dog’s corpse frozen at the University of Ghent. Three months later, he said he was ready to say goodbye to the dog, so the veterinary school @ the university, where the dog was frozen, thawed the dog and Laurent said goodbye.

Dorgis: Cider, Candy and Vulcan. {source 1} [Dorgi = Corgi + Dachshund. This breed came into existence when one of the Queen's Corgis got naughty with one of the late Queen Mother's Dachshunds.] -ACM

The Queen is known to pamper her beloved dogs. It has been reported that her dogs are often treated better than some human members of the Royal Family. The Queen feeds her dogs chef-prepared cooked meat.{Source 2}

She received her first corgi, Susan, for her 18th birthday in 1944. She was so delighted with Susan that she even took her on her honeymoon with Prince Phillip in 1947. Since then, the 30+ Corgis she has had have been decedents of her beloved Susan. She sometimes allows her beloved dogs to sleep in her room, but often they sleep in their own room, in their wicker baskets that are raised from the floor in order to prevent droughts.The Queen is so in love with her dogs that she once fired a footman for spiking one of her dogs food and water with whiskey and gin in 1999. One of her corgis, Phoenix, who had died two years prior to the above incident, was found to have traces of alcohol in his blood. Each Christmas, the Queen personally makes her dogs stockings including: biscuits, chocolate drops, crackers, and plastic toys (with the squeakers removed). {Source 2}

Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales and HRH Camilla, The Duchess of Cornwall:

Beth is 12 weeks old and a brand new addition to the Wales family as of August 2011. Unlike many other royal dogs, who are bred specifically to continue the royal bloodlines, Beth was rescued from the Battersea animal shelter which Camilla and Charles support.

Camilla has been proud owner of three other Jack Russell terriers, including Tosca and Rosie, since 2006; she's also a patron of the Animal Care Trust. {Source 4} Another Jack Russell who has his clutches on Camilla's heart is Freddie, who was sired by Prince Charles' favorite Tigga--see next point! {Source 5}

Prince Charles' beloved Tigger, also known as Tigga, a Jack Russell who died after a life of 18 years! {Source 5}

Prince William's first dog was a black Labrador puppy, a female, named Widgeon. He was about 12 or 13 years old when he got Widgeon as a gift from his grandmother's Sandringham kennels. Widgeon gave birth to eight pups herself in 2003.

Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, has been seen walking with a few canine friends. At the Beaufort Polo Club in July 2006--back when she was just plain 'Waity Katie' Middleton--while Prince William played polo, she played fetch with a Golden Retriever!{Source 17} {Source 18}

Anne, Princess Royal:

Doublet (horse in 1971 that she won the European Championship with) {Source 8}

Two English bull terriers, one of whom is named Dotty. In 2002, she was the first senior royal to be convicted of a crime because her dog attacked two children. She was forced to pay a fine of £500, and £500 compensation after pleading guilty to a charge that one of her dogs attacked two children. The courts also order her to keep the dog on a lead in public, to organize training for the animal, and to pay £148 in court costs. Her grand total of fines was £1,148, and to put the dog into training, and a warning that if it were to happen again, the animal would have to be put down. Normally, penalties can include a £5,000 fine, six months imprisonment and the animal being euthanized.{Source 9}

The following year Dotty's mum Florence bit maid Ruby Brooker and later mauled the Queen's corgiPharos, which was put down after her leg was broken. Florence and Dotty were sent for retraining.{Source 10}

Toytown, a chestnut gelding born in 1992, with particularly distinctive markings including a white blaze and white spots, is a British eventing horse owned and ridden by Zara Phillips. Toytown was officially retired in August 2011 on the final day of the British Festival of Eventing. {Source 11}

Tsunami II: On 25 October 2008, she fell from her horse, Tsunami II, at the 15th fence of a cross-country event at Pau, France, and broke her right collarbone. The horse had broken its neck after it had tipped over the hedge and so had to be put down.

Zara is also known to have at least two dogs, of her mother's favorite canine breed, the Bull Terrier. In 2009, she had a mother-like-daughter moment when she decided to break the rules while training at the Burghley Horse Trials--where there are strict "dogs must be kept on leads at all times" regulations--by letting her two dogs, Spey and Corley, off their leads. {Source 12}

Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, the Queen's younger sister:

Cavalier King Charles Spaniel for many years prior to her death {Source 13}

Princess Beatrice had a Norwich Terrier named Max since the age of 7. In 2008, Max went missing, and Sarah, Duchess of York, offered a substantial reward for his return, with "no questions asked". Her grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, inlisted the help of the Royal Protection Officers, as well as the groundkeepers of the park where Princess Beatrice's beloved Max went missing. The Queen even personally helped her destrought granddaughter look for her beloved friend. After three weeks of searching for him, Princess Beatrice's pal finally made a royal appearance again. {Source 14}{Source 15} {Source 16}

There were many animals given as gifts during The Queen’s reign, several of which were/are housed at The London Zoo.{source 1} These include:

a brown Syrian bear given to Princess Anne by the Soviet leaders Bulganin and Kruschev

two sloths given to The Queen during her State Visit to Brazil in 1968

a baby crocodile given to The Duke of York following the State Visit to Gambia in 1961

a horse given to The Queen by Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands. The horse was housed in the Royal Mews.

a canary from Germany

jaguars and sloths from Brazil

two black beavers from Canada

two young giant turtles from the Seychelles

an elephant called Jumbo from the Cameroon.

Princess Michael of Kent--aka Marie-Christine, wife of the Queen's 1st cousin Prince Michael of Kent--is absolutely batty about her fleet of Burmese and Siamese cats. God forbid if any stray cats around the grounds of Kensington Palace get naughty with her precious pure-breed felines. To prevent this, she sets out cat traps all around the place. Diana, Princess of Wales and Prince William, now the Duke of Cambridge, used to have fun with her by setting the caught strays free and replacing them with stuffed toy ones! {Source 19}

Her Majesty also had a Dachshund named Zenobie, age 4, who disappeared in October/November 1993 and there have been distasteful jokes and rumors about the possibility of the dog falling victim to her husband's controversial palate.

The royal consort made a disturbing statement in 2006: "Dog meat tastes like rabbit.... I’ve got no qualms about eating dog meat. These dogs are bred to be eaten, just like chickens."{Source 2} Prince Henrik is the Honorary President of the Danish Dachshund Club and, like his regal wife, a devoted 'owner' of many of that breed. He even wrote a poem for one of his favorite Dachshunds, who was named Evita.{Source 2}

The Queen and the Prince Consort have had repeated problems with the Dachshunds biting palace guards. In 2008, one of the Royal Life Guards was bitten by a royal Dachshund and, in 2009, Evita, age 11, bit a soldier at one of the royal palaces.{Source 1}

Crown Prince Frederik & Crown Princess Mary have a Border Collie named Ziggy. Ziggy is beautiful. She has blue eyes. Frederik and Mary welcomed Ziggy into their family in April 2005.{Source 3, Source 4} Ziggy was born on 13 January 2005 at a Danish kennel and originally was named Jezabel, but the Crown Princely couple changed her name; it is said that Mary chose the new name.{Source 4}

Princess Grace was given a poodle that she named Oliver by Cary Grant when she left Hollywood to become Princess Consort of Monaco. Throughout her adult life, she had a variety of poodles. More pictures of Grace and Oliver and other poodles:

Princess Charlene has/had a dog from around 2007 to at least 2009 (if she doesn't still have him), that was reportedly a gift from Prince Albert that she took almost everywhere with her, and named Monac:

At her death, it was revealed that she had a sanctuary for Principality animals, mostly consisting of dogs and cats. Like her brother, Princess Antoinette loved animals; and when she settled at the romantically named villa Le Bout de Monde at Eze in the early 1950s, she established an animal sanctuary there. Most of the inhabitants were dogs (boxers, collies, basset hounds, German shepherds) and cats, some of which were sent to her by Monaco’s Society for the Protection of Animals, of which she was president. The Princess also maintained four large bird tables which attracted ring doves, starlings, blackbirds and robins, which would wait in the trees for feeding time. Staff were employed to care for the animals. As the years went by, so the number of animals multiplied, and in recent years visitors sometimes found it hard to get near the Princess. Some of her servants declared her to be “completely mad”, but the Princess merely said: “Every day spent with [my animals] gives me great happiness. They all give me unbelievable joy.”{Source 1}

At his death, Prince Rainier had a dog named Odin. At his funeral, Odin, along with the Princely family, followed the casket throughout Monaco from the Palace Chapel to St. Nicholas Cathedral. Upon her father's death, Princess Stephanie took Odin into her home. (Wonder if she still has him?)

Charlotte Casiraghi, with Jaffart and an alopecia-afflicted (bald) Princess Caroline in 1996. Jaffart was the Casiraghi family's beloved Labrador friend in the 1990s. At one point, he was lost and they put signs around their hometown of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Of course, the paparazzi sold their pictures of the signs to the magazines, which was probably (for once) helpful to the family's finding their lost friend! That must be a rare case of the stalkerazzi being a bonus!

Princess Caroline's and Charlotte Casiraghi's Dachshund--or Teckel--puppies, first seen at the International Show jumping competition in 2010: [note: Teckel is almost the same kind of dog as Dachsund; the difference is minutia and likely only discernable by breed experts!]

Tempête du Midi was Charlotte's first serious jumping horse. His color was grey and he got her over her first competitive obstacles when she was 13 and 14 years old. Together, they jumped fences from heights of 90cm to 1.20m

Danub was a horse Charlotte was seen jumping, for practice, at an equestrian center in the Monaco area back in late summer 2001.This horse belonged to her Belgian friend and fellow jumping rider Wendy Wauters, who was with her at the practice. The pictures of the practice first emerged on the long-defunct website of Sergio Amaya. At the time, Amaya claimed that Charlotte was buying the horse from Wendy. We don't know that Charlotte ever competed with Danub, however.

Hestia Delta was the horse on which Charlotte won first place in the "Stars Race"--at Fontainebleau's raceourse De La Salle--on 13 October 2001.

Folka du Parc Marionnaud was a chestnut mare Charlotte rode throughout 2002 and 2003. Folka, and Charlotte, belonged to the Team Marionnaud. That team was obviously sponsored by the eponymous perfume company and was organized by Marcel Rozier--the father of Charlotte's trainer, Thierry--at his equestrian center in Bois-le-Roi.

Dumba Marionnaud was the "other" major partner of Charlotte's teenager years. At every competition throughout 2002 and 2003, she was jumping with Folka and Dumba. Dumba was a dark bay and a good horse for her, generally speaking, despite that she experienced a couple of nasty falls with him. There was an incident in which she lost a tooth, and another incident resulted in a bad sprain or fracture somewhere in one of her legs.

Claire Chen was a horse she borrowed from her family's friend Virginie Couperie-Eiffel back in 2004. Virginie is the ambassador of the Gucci Masters and, in 2010, invited Charlotte to introduce her Pro-Am Cup into that annual jumping event.

Aber Hallo Marionnaud was a grey mare from the Rozier stables in Bois-le-Roi. Charlotte rode this horse starting late in 2003 and through 2004. In December 2003, Charlotte and Aber Hallo placed 1st in a juniors B competition.

GI Joe was the first horse of Charlotte's comeback to the jumping sport in 2009. His owner is Stal Tops, the sport horse operation of Jan Tops.

Barco van der Waterschans is a horse Charlotte has rarely been partnered with. Thierry Rozier introduced her to this black stallion in her comeback year, 2009. She competed on Barco at least twice in the Fontainebleau area, in May and again in October. Both events were rather obscure and so there aren't pictures. Thierry likes Barco a lot, but he wasn't right for Charlotte.

Tintero is the one horse known, with certainty, to be actually owned by Charlotte. He is also well-known as one of her best partners. They had an excellent 2010 season together. In several interviews, Charlotte called him "my best" and there is also much affection between them. In US Vogue, one of Mario Testino's photographs of the pair shows Tintero putting his head over her shoulder from behind, a great mark of love from a horse.

Troy is all chestnut, from his ears to his tail. Charlotte and Troy have been through the mill together. He was great with his previous partner, but had a rough 2010 season with Charlotte. The 2011 season has been much more promising for the pair. Troy is a stallion who was born in 2000 in the Netherlands. His owner is usually listed as M.J.G.P. Korting, but on the occasion, Troy has been listed as owned by Charlotte.

Carryduff Z is a dark bay stallion. Charlotte hasn't jumped many stallions other than Carry, and Troy (see above.) She has generally stuck with mares and geldings. Carry looks a lot like Madison, but much darker, and without any white markings. Carry is owned by BG Hof Herding.

Madison d'Olgy is a light bay mare with the same black tail as Carry. Madison is distinctive by the white markings on her face. Madison is owned by SARL La Martiniere.

Prince Claus and Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands in the garden of Huis ten Bosch palace with their border terrier Miss Pepper in 1993.

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands had a dog named Chip no earlier than 2007

Norway

Then Crown Princess Sonja (now Queen Sojna) is greeted by her dog, Cheri after leaving the hospital in 1970.

The "Kronprinsparet" (Crown Prince Haakon and Mette-Marit) have a dog named Milly Kakao. {Picture/Source 1} Milly Kakao is a mutt, which makes it likely she's a rescue, which means that Haakon and Mette-Marit just scored whopper points for canine compassion! Milly's mix is Labrador and Poodle! {Source 2} Milly Kakao lives with them in Skaugum, near the town of Asker where the kids go to school. She joined the Crown Princely family in 2009. {Pictures/Source 3}

Princess Lilian has had a Golden Retriever named Bingo.{see again Source 5; Source 6; Source 7} It is noteworthy that some royal watchers on The Royal Forums seem to be confused about Bingo and Jambo. They are very different dogs. Bingo belongs to Princess Lilian and he is a Golden Retriever. Jambo belonged to the King and Queen and their children, and Jambo was a Labrador. Bingo and Jambo have a similar color, but of course, Bingo has a very long coat, which is typical of the Golden Retriever breed.